Asteroid (101955) Bennu’s Weak Boulders and Thermally Anomalous Equator

Thermal inertia and surface roughness are proxies for the physical characteristics of planetary surfaces. Global maps of these two propertiesdistinguish the boulder population on near-Earth asteroid (NEA) (101955)Bennuinto two typesthat differ in strength,andboth havelower thermal inertiathan expect...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science advances 2020-10, Vol.6 (41)
Main Authors: Rozitis, B, Ryan, A J, Emery, J P, Christensen, P R, Hamilton, V E, Simon, A A, Reuter, D C, Asad, M Al, Ballouz, R-L, Bandfield, J L, Barnouin, O S, Bennett, C A, Bernacki, M, Burke, K N, Cambioni, S, Clark, B E, Daly, M G, Delbo, M, DellaGiustina, D N, Elder, C M, Hanna, R D, Haberle, C W, Howell, E S, Golish, D R, Jarwin, E R, Kaplan, H H, Lim, L F, Molaro, J L, Munoz, D Pino, Nolan, M C, Rizk, B, Siegler, M A, Susorney, H C M, Walsh, K J, Lauretta, D S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomy
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Planetary Science
SciAdv r-articles
Sciences of the Universe
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Summary:Thermal inertia and surface roughness are proxies for the physical characteristics of planetary surfaces. Global maps of these two propertiesdistinguish the boulder population on near-Earth asteroid (NEA) (101955)Bennuinto two typesthat differ in strength,andboth havelower thermal inertiathan expectedfor boulders and meteorites. Neither has strongly temperature-dependent thermal properties. The weakerbouldertypeprobably would not survive atmospheric entry and thus may not berepresented in the meteorite collection. The maps also show ahigh-thermal-inertia band at Bennu’s equator, which might be explained by processes such as compaction or strength sorting during mass movement, but these explanations are not wholly consistent with other data. Our findings imply that other C-complex NEAs likely have boulderssimilar to those on Bennu,rather than finer-particulate regoliths.A tentative correlation between albedo and thermal inertia of C-complex NEAs may be due to relative abundances of boulder types.
ISSN:2375-2548
2375-2548
DOI:10.1126/sciadv.abc3699